Naruto: Will Of The Third Hokage
by FlamingPen
Summary: How will the plans of one of the smartest ninja of his time affect Naruto and his generation? With the many looming threats to the hidden leaf, both internal and external, how will Konoha survive the Plans being made by Danzo to collaborate with Orochimaru? Can Naruto escape the personal, often psychological, traps set for him by the two? Rated M for Various reasons.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto : Will Of The Third Hokage

The hidden village of Konoha, home to many skilled shinobi. Among the best, the third hokage, sat behind his desk reviewing several documents and reports. After all, running a hidden village is no small task. Every other village is a constant threat, regardless of peace treaties or other arrangements. one of the things that was easily overlooked, however, was the dangers inside the village.

The third hokage was growing more suspicious every day, and his research team were closing in on one name, Danzo. There was no solid evidence yet, but it was becoming increasingly clear that one of the council members was behind a lot of shady things recently. Of these events, one stood out to the hokage and especially the Hyuga clan. The attempted kidnaping of young Hinata, over a year ago; and Hizashi's suicide to cover for the girl's father, his beloved twin brother.

It was for these reasons that the third had decided to enlist the clan's help in his internal investigations. a good portion of the paper work before him had to do with recently planned land development to the east wing of their estate. Everything had to look in order for when Donzo and his helpers went sniffing threw the records, but the real work being done was happening completely off the books. It was Sarutobi family money that was being used to fund half of the secret project, and the Hyuga clan was handling the construction themselves to maintain complete secrecy.

It was at times like these, that the third hokage wished he were able to keep the two remaining sanin inside the leaf village. But with Orochimaru having gone rouge, and all the other emotional baggage they still carried, how could he blame them. On the other hand, with growing trouble with hidden cloud, maybe it wasn't so bad for them to be out in the world. Soon the time would come when things like hidden cloud and Orochimaru would need to be dealt with, and so the third turned his thoughts back to the Hyuga estate construction. His hopes were that he could form a secret training compound, and from it form his own secret division of ANBU to counter Danzo's ROOT division, that the hokage ordered disbanded. No doubt, they still lurked in the shadows of the village. influencing the flow of politics and infiltrating the council.

The third began to form out plans for the first two groups through the training progrm. he decided that he should test the waters carefully, and so he went for two groups, one young and one with more experience. in the older group, the group selected to start as soon as the program was ready, were; Kakashi Hataki, Might Gai, Shikaku Nara, Anko Mitarashi, and Hiashi Hyuuga. as for the younger group, who would start after the first group was ready to train them; Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, Sassuke uchia, Ino Yamanaka, and Naruto Uzumaki. the third smiled, _'that should make this interesting.' _he quickly drew up the orders and called for his most trusted messenger, one of his summoned monkeys. with the orders on their way to the hyuga compound, the old man left a shadow clone to take care of his duties for a while so he could go and take naruto out for ramen.

**xxxxx secret ROOT facility xxxxx **

Ten men kneeled in two rows of five, gathered in a moderate sized room. they were awaiting the arrival of their new master, having just fully become part of the program. Today was the day that they get to finally meet the head of the group. this information understandably being one of their top secrets to guard, a few showed signs of being nervious. all attention was drawn to the front of the room as Danzo from the council appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"So, the ten of you are men who share my beliefs of the preservation of konoha. you are all skilled in your own ways, though only half of you are actually ninja. for the next few months we will be gathering information on three specific things. and you ten are to be the eyes and ears of this mission," Danzo had begun walking around the group as he spoke, examining them in ways only know to himself.

He continued his speech, "first, we are going to get as close to the hokage as we can. i want to know when the old man does everything...i want to know what time he goes to piss! Secondly, Uzumaki Naruto, the container of the Kyuubi. i need to have extensive knowledge of this boy from now untill he is under our control. the power of that demon could rule the whole of the five great nations, if under the proper authority." Danzo was again at the front of the room, he placed his hands behind himself, and spoke again.

"Finally, among the ten of you here there are two from the Hyuga clan. one in each group, ninja and civilian. our final task is to gather detailed maps, blue-prints, and records on the estate itself. we will then move on to the clan, member by member recording their every detail. For the time being, however, i will need you all to continue your training and regular reports. you will be individually pulled aside and given more specific instruction." The group was dismissed, all calmly rising and walking out. To maintain every level of secrecy, they wouldn't even let eachother know who was or was not a shinobi.

**xxxxx Ichiraku Ramen Stand xxxxx **

Naruto sat beside the hokage, both alone in the stand due to the two ANBU outside standing guard. Another was in the kitchen to ensure "food quality" for the hokage. "So grandpa, what did you want to talk about? we usually go out for ramen when you have something to tell me." The old man smiled, "yes, you're quite smart naruto. i do need to tell you something. you know what's next week don't you naruto?" the hokage had taken a serious expression at his question. Naruto nodded, "yeah, it's the day everyone remembers they hate me. Well everyone but you and old man Ichiraku." The third was amazed that Naruto could remain smiling after such a terrible statement. "Yes, the anniversary of the Kyuubi attack. simply because it also happens to be your birthday, many believe that you are the fox reborn. a purely ignorant thought."

Naruto finished a bite of his food, "so what are you telling me grandpa? i already knew all that." "i'm telling you to be careful naruto, i want you to stay in your room at the orphanage all day and night. i'll send your some things to help, but you must be careful naruto. Some of the people who think of you as the fox are going to be in foul moods on that day; seeing you out could set one of them off." The third lightened the conversation, having no desire to frighten the boy. soon they had finished and the hokage escorted Naruto back to the orphanage.

**xxxxx Secret root facility xxxxx**

Danzo was standing before three of his senior agents. he had a very special mission for them today. "I've called on the three of you today for a mission that only from your unique positions in the village can be arranged. from now until the night of the Kyuubi attack anniversary, i need you three to help in spreading fear and rumors. get the old timers fired up about lost loved ones; get the veteran ninja from that night talking about the battle and their injuries." He paused for a moment.

"This will be an important step in our plans. with the village becoming such a hostile place towards him, this will be the best way to ensure that he is placed into the ninja training program, maybe even placed early. as soon as the boy enters the ninja academy, i can start to control him through our agents there."

Each of the men he had summoned were given a scroll containing more detailed orders, specific tasks to do, and rumors to spread. they were then dismissed from the room to leave their master to his various works for and/or against the village, depending on your views. He made his way deeper into the facility, reaching a special office he had established for himself. It was from this office that he planned out his most important operations. so he now found himself sitting behind his desk, going over files he had gathered on known Kyuubi attack victims of every range. he knew who fought, and he knew who had lost family; He even knew about most of the accidental deaths from the chaos. Danzo already had a list of "targets" nearly eighty names long.

** xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Two days before the anniversary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx **

It was now only two more days until the anniversary. Naruto was taking notice of the change in peoples attitude. He decided that he should just wait out the whole weekend inside. Naruto could understand some of the feelings of the villagers. after all, it couldn't be easy to lose family members to something like a demon attack. the part that had him confused was why they hated him so much when all he did was just be born on the same day the fox died. He did his best to pass the time on his own, playing with the few toys he was allowed. even in the orphanage he was treated differently. people wern't even allowed to ask about adopting him. the council had a special law about it. ninja or civilian were bared from it, the hokage himself having tried.

** xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Day of the attack xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Naruto was on edge now. the mood in the village was downright tense. It had moved from passing glances and mutters to stares and bold statements. his window was boarded up, having been broken by several rocks thrown just yesterday. he had dared to peak outsid, and was spotted by an old man on a cane. the elderly man couldn't even get his rock to go over the fence, but a ninja passing by "helped" the old man out.

Within seconds a small crowd of people had joined in, shouting insults and names as they threw stones. Naruto was forced to roll under his bed as he ducked out of the way of the rocks and glass. he was hit once in the head as he fell to the ground, but he guessed he was ok. the incident forced the third to place a single ANBU guard at the orphanage, rotating the post between three shifts so a single team could share the task and not interrupt their other patrols.

Soon it was night time and the streets were quieting down. it was the last shift chang of the watch, after tonight, the job would be over, and the ANBU wouldn't be needed here anymore. So it was through no coincidence that the last ANBU to guard naruto was on of Danzo's Root agents infiltrating the leaf ninja ranks. tonight was the grand finally of the three man team he gave his special mission to.

In two different bars not far from the orphanage, the other members of the team were working up their own angry mobs, planning to get them to converge on the boy. the first man was in a place called "the rusty shuriken." it was a ninja bar where old veterans and a few rough looking active duty shinobi hung out. the bartender and owner himself fought in the kyuubi attack, losing his left leg to a stray fire ball launched by the beast's tail. he was a grey haired old timer, having also fought in the third war.

The second man causing trouble tonight, was in a civilian bar that also had a few ninja patrons now and then. his target was "The Konoha Sake House." tonight seemed to have the place packed full of regretful drunks. Danzo's agent went straight into the plan he knew was playing out at the first bar. he walked in talking with a clone of his team mate. the two had traded clones just before separating. this gave them a solid alibi if anyone saw through the clone jutsu, they could just say their friend must have baled on them as a joke.

As the pair entered the bar, they were going over a well rehearsed set of lines. they told of their losses to that horible night just five years ago now. Naturally, it wasn't long until someone overheard and joined in with their own story. Within minutes he had a small corner of the bar worked up, and by then end of a half hour, it had spread through the room. With the entire room ready for action, the man stood and gave his final line, "Well, let's go do something about it! We can get that little demon, the last guard already left an hour ago."

XXXXX Orphanage XXXXX

The Lone ANBU, the only one for a mile radius and one of danzo's ROOT agents, sat on the high point of the roof. he was in position just above the targets bedroom, and so he entered into the second part of his mission for the night. As he gathered his chakra and preformed five handseals, a soft pink mist floated into the building just below Naruto's room. it spread out into the building, covering every other part of it. The ANBU checked to make sure his genjutsu had worked, and with everyone in the building except the boy under a forced sleep, he then concealed himself and waited for the right time to go into his third and final order.

Right on schedule the sounds of an angry mob started coming from down the road. it sounded too big to be just one small bar's worth, so this meant that the plan had succeeded and bouth groups joined up at the planned point along the way. Another moment and they were infront of the orphanage. one of the ninja in the crowd preformed a sleeping genjutsu to ensure they got in unnoticed. as a few of them entered the building, thee small group quickly went to the boy's room and silently opened the door. Naruto was asleep, so the ninja casting his genjutsu again only meant he wouldn't wake up untill they wanted. Naruto was roughly repositioned and tied into his covers, which were now being used as a sack. the small group crept out of the building and met up with the waiting crowd. the group went to a quiet alley just two streets down.

With the group just out of sight, the ANBU came out of hiding. He walked over to the edge of the roof, and leapt to the ground below, where the crowd had just been. Producing a scroll from his vest, he opened it and summoned it's contents. blood splattered across the wall and ground before him, as the lifeless form of his body double fell to the dirt. some weapons, with planted fingerprints from some of the names on danzo's list, scattered in with the blood. he then proceeded to leap back onto the roof, and exit the scene by following his assigned patrol route. At a given point in his patrol, he would cut off to his escape route and make his exit of the leaf village.

XXXXX Dark alleyway XXXXX

Two kunai and a rope held the bag just at chest level, suspended in the center of the alley. Naruto's still sleeping form hung unaware of the danger he was in. two ninja at either end of the area preformed a sound suppression jutsu, and then the group got started. Two men walked up to either side of the sack holding Naruto, and each took turns punching it with moderate force. they were only trying to wake him for now. Naruto quickly came out of the chakra induced slumber he was in, awoken by being stricken in his face and back. "Hey!" He had shouted more out of instinct, and regretted it as a harder blow caught him in is gut. He squirmed around and soon received a kick from the bottom of his unknown prison.

"Stand back," A stronger looking man with a scar on his cheek said, "that demon took my sister, it's my turn!" he ran up to the sack, and viciously started to throw punches. the blows rained down on an unprepared Naruto, as he whimpered with each strike. the last few blows came in the form of three full force kicks. the bag was still as the next man approached, Naruto inside remaining silent to play dead. this man was quite large, and had the same rage filled look as the last. He remained silent himself, as he plucked the entire sack off the rope and slammed it into the brick wall of the alley. he repeated this back and forth between the walls at least four times, before tossing the slightly bloody body of the boy out into the street before them all.

The two men who had started hitting him came up and each took hold of one of his arms, while he was disoriented. they held him up and stepped on his feet, to stretch him out a little. with Naruto firmly in place he groaned out a bit as he picked his head up. a woman approached him now, the only one in the group. she had a tree branch about an inch thick, and three feet long. she took several harsh swings into his back, and a few to his left ribs. the tears poured out of her face as she could barely stand. she was blubbering on about her children and the fires started by the demon attack. she took one final swing into his face, as she spoke of her husband dyeing in their burning house, having gone in after the children.

Naruto was crying now, trying to ask them to stop, but his jaw was broken from the heavy impact of the stick. a bottle came flying from the rest of the crowd, soon followed by a rock. as people searched for things to throw, the men holding him used a second piece of rope to tie naruto's wrists to the line still hanging between the alley walls. With the target securley hung, everyone took their best shots with whatever they could find to throw. Naruto felt several heavy impacts across his body, being caught in the chest with a rock. a second bottle hit him and shattered, and then s shuriken from one of the ninja caught in his leg, just above his knee.

One of he men posted as lookouts shouted, "ANBU! Scatter!" Everyone did their best to scramble away from the alley, but the masked konoha ninja appearing at one end quickly apprehended and restrained a good third of the crowd by using shadow clones. In the confusion, most of the ninja involved managed to evade detection as they left in various ways. With the rest of the fleeing civilians now too scattered to really find, the ANBU had their clones start taking prisoners directly to torture and investigation.

The unit's medic ran up to naruto's hanging body, herself using two clones, they gently took him down and laid him on a stretcher that the original had just summoned. her clones took positions on each end of the stretcher and waited for the signal to leave. the medic started imediate treatment, focusing on the most severe wounds first. as she stabilized him, she signaled her clones to go, herself in pursuit.

XXXXX Konoha Hospital XXXXX

The third hokage himself was being briefed by the ANBU medic who brought the boy in. "Lord hokage, he's in surgery now. The total number of broken bones requires extensive reconstruction. at the moment, nothing life threatening is going on, but his recovery time is not going to be short or easy." The hokage gave out explicit orders to the two ANBU investigation units he had brought with him, "As soon as the reports come in from Ibiki, Gather the remaining civilions responsible for this and have the entire group from the alley in Konoha prision holding cell four. any ninja from the group take to holding cell nine."

With the two units now in preperation of their mission, the hokage continued his discussion with the medical ninja. "Naruto is to receive the best care possible. i was no expense spared and only the most qualified medics on his case." "yes lord hokage, but i'm afraid that we have other issues with his recovery. While i was stabilizing him, i discovered that the seal for the fox demon was visable and active. a small amount of it's chakra is circulating through the boy's body. i think it's trying to heal him, but it's not mixing well with his human chakra system." The old man was amazed by this, And very thankful, it could have been what saved his life tonight. the medic had explained that he had come pretty close before she had started healing him. One of his lungs had been punctured from his broken ribs.

The complete list of his injuries was long, and dificult for the third to read. hew was so angry over this that he feared for the ones responsible when they were gathered before him as he had ordered. He then gave extensive orders to the entire medical squad he had formed for naruto, and went into the villages forbidden library to get information he approved to help them work with the demonic chakra flowing into naruto. The third had been left with a scroll from the fourth hokage about the healing abilities the chakra possessed to those a demon was bound to. it was quite harmful to others if not handled properly. The old man Hoped that this would help Naruto.


	2. Chapter 2

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Naruto was hospitalized for several months. He had to have several bone reconstruction operations, which had to be spaced out. time was needed to allow them to set up so they could build further. Once they had mended all of his skeletal damage, they moved on to building up his muscles again. so much time on bed rest had him weak. the boy wasn't even conscious for the first week of treatment.

When they had first brought him in, it was a mad dash to continue the work the first medic on him had started. a special four woman team had taken him into a room kept ready with a specific array of seals carved into the stone floor. With Naruto placed in the center of the symbols, the four women took their places and cast a synchronized jutsu. a roaring green flame burst from each of their bodies, circling and engulfing Naruto.

As his body lifted up into the air, red sparks started to shoot from his body. they came slowly at first, emerging from various parts of his chakra system. the sparks quickly increased, and burst into shoots of dark red chakra-fire. The jutsu canceled itself prematurely, dropping naruto to the floor. the medics rushed in to see what had happened, and found that whatever it was, it had very quickly healed the worst of his injuries. it had also attempted to set some of the bones, but it looked like it lacked the time to do so.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXX Hokage's Office XXXXX

Kakashi hatake was the first of the selected ninja to be instructed of the Hyuuga estate secret training program. With every security measure he was able to implement, he had made their conversation privet. "Forgive the overly dramatic secrecy, but i assure you it's relevant. What i'm about to tell you is an S-ranked village secret that only i will be aware of the full details, and you of what i tell you now. You are being included in a long term training mission, which will also involve other ninja i select. their names will remain a secret from you as your's will from them."

The hokage then took out something from his desk,"here are two scrolls, one of them contains several of the security jutsu i preformed on this room, and further in a burning seal that destroys both scrolls completely when activated. in the second scroll, which is only to be read after using the jutsu from the first part of the first scroll, there are detailed instructions on how to enter and exit the compound, as well as your uniform sealed just after." Kakashi bowed to the hokage, taking his two scrolls and concealing them before he exited the office.

The hokage had a meeting like this planned for each of the first group he selected. Once he had them all prepared, they would begin training directly under him. It was the only way to ensure they would be ready for Orochimaru. The evidence was mounting that Danzo was in communication, and possibly even an alliance with the snake sanin. His own black ops had discovered that the ninja found dead on top of Naruto's orphanage, was a body double. tracking dogs found a break off of his patrol. his trail was heading well out of the village, and in the direction rice country, the third hokage's last known location of Orochimaru.

No doubt the man was sent with a message, and most likely village secrets as a show of good faith. the old Sarutobi was fed up with this mess, and in truth with being hokage in general. He also understood the reason for him to continue anyway, the need for his knowledge and experience. He decided to again leave a shadow clone in charge until his next meeting. he needed to go visit naruto. he would be coming out of the hospital today.

XXXXX Secret Root Facility XXXXX

Danzo was making his first move since they instigated the attack on the orphanage. he had called his ten newest recruits into the meeting room and was now giving them their first orders in months. "It's time to become active again. we have most assuredly laid a solid foundation for our plans, and now we begin it's frame. many people went missing the night of the attack, and since they were arrested under secret ANBU orders... only a jonin could find out about it."

He now came to the point of it, "We will be starting a string of rumors that the demon took hold of naruto and killed some of these people. we even have well prepared stories of it so some of you can act as witnesses to the murders." He gave select members of the group small envelopes, containing the one or two page eyewitness stories. "those not recieving an envelope are to start speculation in general over the situation."

With his latest twisted act set into motion, Danzo dismissed his followers. he himself still had much work to do, so he was again heading into his office. As expected, it had taken some time to get a reply from the man he had sent to Orochimaru on the night the boy was attacked. the response he had recieved was well worth the wait. it seemed that the newly formed "hidden sound" wanted to invade the village in a few years time. Danzo had no real issue with this, having been one of the few supporters of the snake sanin for hokage, before it was given to Minato.

XXXXX Rice Country: bunker near the land of iron border XXXXX

Orochimaru was a busy man lately. The construction of his own hidden village was no small task. with most of the work in its begining stages, he was making round trips to them all to ensure that everything was going to plan and being kept secret. Today he was checking on his two farthest locations to date. He was already inside the first of them, inspecting the building that had just yesterday been finished.

The snake sanin himself would be placing the security seals and other such jutsu. He felt that it was the safest way to do so. It was important to pay special attention to this bunker, it had great importance in his plans for the future. from the exit, he was only five miles outside of the harbor town just along the border of iron and rice. being able to send and receive shipments here without the prying eyes of fire country was a valuable asset to Orochimaru.

In about another two months he should be getting his first shipment in. He had went to great lengths to negotiate with a powerful group of rouge ninja from lightning country over comming into his operation. Now, he was ordering many ninja weapons and supplies in order to smuggle the men in one by one to avoid suspicion. "The Electric Five," as they had become known, were a dangerous s rank group( each member being high b or a rank individually). The group consisted of three men and two women, all of whom had given up their names and adopted a number in the ranks.

Orochimaru had finished his work on the building, deciding to skip his break and go straight into his next task. He used a normal sized viper summon to take a message to his spy in the leaf village. it was time to meet with Danzo and discuss their goals for the nine-tails. With his message now on it's way, the sanin began to move back into rice country. he had established a large underground complex there and he had decided that it would be his very own hidden village. From it, he would invade the hidden leaf.

XXXXX Hyuga Estate, beneath the east wing, XXXXX

Hiruzen Sarutobi had dressed in the same concealing uniform he had given out to his select new students. A black hooded cloak with a black ANBU mask, and black pants leading down to boots. the addition of gloves made it so nobody could even know the persons skin tone. Much like Danzo's ROOT division, the third needed secrecy for this.

Right on time, his five selected ninja entered the chamber. they were gathered in a large open room with a dramatically high ceiling. A seal in the mask altering his voice, the third hokage gave orders to the group to take formation around him. training in this room would be intense, and he intended to explain that now. Instructions were given in the scrolls he had handed out to use only abilities that wouldn't reveal your identity while group training. Each person would be addressed in a one on one session between group activities.

He then told them to attack him, sinking into a solid stance. Their instructor was vicious, tossing them around like rag dolls. anyone getting close to him was cast off like dirty clothing, thrown violently to the floor. even with five on one, the man in the center simply planted his feet and was un-movable. by the time he began to add strikes into his responses, he was now moving to keep up with where he was forcing the group to retreat as they revised their approach.

This asualt went on for nearly an hour, before the moved into physical and chakra training. to save time both aspects were combined in one exercise. The instructor had his students stand to the side of the room as he created several shadow clones and then preceded to set up for the training. using the mud wall jutsu, he created a nearly vertical sloping hill. his clones took formation on the edge of the top, and began to use the mud-slide jutsu to create a constant mud river. His students then spent the last of their time using chakra control to stay on top of the mud as well as move up the hill.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After being released from the hospital and spending some time with the hokage, naruto learned that he was no longer to be in the orphanage. He would be given an appartment that the village would pay rent on, as well as a small amount of money for food and cloths. in order to avoid future incidents, the old man himself taught the boy the transformation jutsu. Hiruzen was beyond surprised at how eaisly he took to it, and considered early enrolment in the academy, '_maybe just before he turns seven.' _

It had been a couple of months since that conversation, and naruto was adjusting to his new life. His apartment was small, but for now so was he. being able to transform into random villagers he had followed around, naruto easily went into stores and got what he needed. Sadly, the only place he ever went as himself was Ichiraku ramen. The villagers just seemed to hate him more with every passing day. Naruto could only hope that it would fade eventually.

In time, the third had indeed gotten Naruto early entrance into the academy. Most of the teachers there seemed to be no different then the rest of the village, but there were two exceptions. Iruka and Mizuki, two mid level chunin who didn't seem to harbor any ill will towards the boy. Each would help him with the areas he struggled in, and when needed they even offered to help him after class. Maybe he had some hope after all.

XXXXX Orochimaru's Bunker near the land of iron XXXXX

The first of his new group of subordinates had been the leader of the group. He had decided that if it was some form of trap or betrayel, that he would be the one to deal with it and ensure his group's safety. So far only two members had been brought in, but the third was coming in two weeks, along with a very special shipment of supplies. The many twisted experiments of the snake sanin required some very specific items to keep going. They also needed a large number of sacrifices.

Thankfully some of the smaller towns in rice country left him with a healthy supply of victims. The small communities had come to treat his ninja underlings as a nightmare come to life, talking only in whispers and hushed stories. to the local children it had become something of a boogy-man story. People disapering, and sometimes outright kidnapings. Life under his rule was starting out hard.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was heartbroken over the events following his latest failing of the graduation exam. He thought that Mizuki was his friend, but it turned out that he was plotting aginst him and the entire village. Naruto had been used as a tool in a plan to steal the forbidden scroll of sealing. At least he managed to get a new jutsu out of the mess, and even got to graduate because of it. Iruka's headband shining on his forehead helped to lessen the blow of finding out the truth about why people hated him.

Starting out as a genin didn't go much better. he had not only been placed on a team with the last uchiha who was also a clear head case, but his sensei was clearly nuts. The "bell test" incident was clear proof, but naruto had to admit he saw the reasoning. After they had a few days of real training, the onslaught of D-ranked missions had naruto feeling nearly brain dead. He had decided to protest when he had the chance to speak to the old mad again.

XXXXX Land of Rivers: undisclosed cave. XXXXX

Five men had gathered in the darkness, being of such a level that they no longer relied on eyesight to guide their movements. it was rare to meet in person like this, even if it was only half of their members. Whatever their meeting was about would surly be important, and most likely involve missions for them all. Their leader took the high point on a ledge overlooking the main cavern they had gathered in, and began to address them. "Today is the start of our main plans. we have recieved information that our former member, Orochimaru, is on the move in his own devious actions. if we are to reach our goals, them we must monitor his movement."

The next few orders were missions for them to each carry out individually, as they were not likely to involve heavy combat. What stuck out among these was the order given to Itachi Uchiha, "Itachi, you are to go to your home village, where you will search our list of orochimaru's old labs, hidden among the utility tunnels. stealth will be key here as to not draw attention to our own actions." With the meeting dismissed, the men disbanded. It would surely be an interesting next few years with things shaping up how they were.


End file.
